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JEDEC Fiddles With DDR4 While LRDIMM Burns

Posted by Soulskill on from the patents-are-complicated dept.

An anonymous reader writes "JEDEC hasn't finalized the upcoming DDR4 standard yet, but it seems they left out licensing some crucial IP for (the already finalized and shipping) LRDIMMs (for use on data center servers). As a result they are only produced by one source which is facing some hurdles justifying their copying of IP. This article discusses how DDR4 is based on LRDIMMs and the future of memory. Quoting: 'JEDEC finalized the LRDIMM standard without securing licensing on load reduction and rank multiplication. Inphi, currently the only maker of LRDIMM buffer chipsets – others have backed off – lost a challenge of Netlist IP at the USPTO. As a result the Netlist patents have become stronger and are going to come back and bite Inphi in Netlist vs. Inphi, which was stayed pending these patent reexaminations – patents which survive re-examination can never again be challenged in court. NLST patents ’537 and ’274 survived with all claims intact, which is a powerful statement on the strength of their IP – Inphi has appealed to the BPAI, but the USPTO decision is telling.'"

3 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. They still have not learned? by gweihir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    After the RAMBUS-scum ran their scam by participating in JEDEC and then patenting the standard elements, I would expect JEDEC to have gotten smarter. Apparently not.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:They still have not learned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes but this was a problem perpetuated by Intel.

      LRDIMMS can be used in DDR3 systems NOW. And guess what, they're 10 times the price.

      The company that makes the chipset is actually in the kind of situation Qualcomm is in, not RAMBUS. Where if they sue someone for copying their IP, they face being sued back, but they're certainly within their rights to enforce their IP. If they were to sue any of the RAM stick manufacturers (eg Kingston, G.Skill, Crucial, etc) they likely will not buy their product, and DDR3 will continue in the same way that DDR took off from regular SDRAM instead of Rambus.

      Rambus snuck their IP into to JEDEC, and thus Intel designed, and subsequently had to throw away an entire line of Chipsets (i820) and their CPU's (All the Pentium 4 line up to Core Duo) and go back to the Pentium 3 and retool from there. So the people who will lose the most are Intel and AMD if JEDEC allows IP that can't be FRAND into the specification.

  2. self promotion - by RichMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The blog referenced is by the Yahoo Finance NLST stock group poster vicl2012v. He writes the blog, then uses references to it on the NLST Yahoo stock board to back up his points. Totally self referential.

    http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_(A_to_Z)/Stocks_N/threadview?m=ts&bn=51443&tid=52454&mid=52454

    The Yahoo stock board is the usual UN-moderated open mess of spammers, and self interested parties both overplaying and hiding their interests.

    As the post here is submitted by anonymous draw your own conclusions.